100% Danger - article from Rolling Stone

There are at least a couple of guarantees with the Meanies. One is that the
songs will all be short, between two and three minutes, every time. The
second is that each burst of savage punk/pop noise will also be a potential
anthem; an unclean riff with a beating heart of pure melody.

Little has changed with the Meanies since they started to make their mark on
the Melbourne indie scene with the release of 1990's "Boogie Wonderland"
single. Now there's a new album, 10% Weird, and they remain something
of a sure bet while retaining a sense of the unpredictable. This, as the band
inferred in the title of last year's triumphant 25-track "Best Of" compilation,
is The Meanie of Life.

The Meanies' unashamed Ramones' streak doesn't stop at short, sharp pop
assaults with Sixties (Beatles/Kinks) inflections. They are - by name - Link,
Wally, DD and Ringo Meanie. The original bass player, pre-Wally, went by the
name of VB Meanie.

Link, the singer (and Meanies' artist), writes all the songs, words and music.
His onstage demeanour is manic; his scream pierces even its own amplification,
and his physical thrashing, hurling, flying and falling can be quite dangerous.

That's why I don't like to do too many shows in a row," he says. "I've hurt
myself many times. I'm not as bad as I used to be. I've only broken one bone,
my finger. Mostly I put my back out or fuck up the tendons in my legs. My
knees got hurt the most. They used to be perpetually swollen and brown, with
a callous covering."

The Meanies released a flood of five singles in six months during 1990/91, all
on Au-Go-Go Records, including the gems "Never" and "Paranoid". They also
supported Nirvana, the Lemonheads, All and Superchunk. By concentrating just
as heavily on Melbourne's unique all-ages network as they did on the pubs,
they have also managed to reach a new and undiscovered fanbase, in tandem with
Tumbleweed, You Am I and Screamfeeder.

"A lot of our fans obviously can't come to the pubs," says Wally Meanie, who
also works as Melbourne booker for 35 Australian indie bands. "The all-ages
thing used to be huge. There was a Manic (all-ages' promoter) day-gig once
every six weeks at the Corner Hotel (in Richmond)."

Last year, the band toured Europe, America and Japan. In those territories
they have released, so far, six vinyl singles, three compilations and a
mini-album, all through different, local indie labels. During their visit to
the States, they recorded 10% Weird at Seattle's Egg Studios.

"If anything we were going for less quality," recalls Link. "We just wanted
it trashy and live-sounding but it ended up probably better than anything
we've done. It's not over-produced or anything, which is what I like, but it
still sounds really good. I wanted to call it Eating Roaches after one
of the songs but no one would let me. The bastards - they beat the shit out
of me until I agreed."

Link says he has so many songs half written on tape somewhere that he need
never write again. "It's true," says Wally. "If he wrote them down or set
tapes aside with his ideas, there'd be fuckin' squillions of the bastards.
There's shitloads of songs on cassettes that we've heard but never played. He
is very prolific."